Reylas Mine

Reylas Mine is a proposed surface mine in Logan County, West Virginia being pursued by Highland Mining Company, a unit of Massey Energy.

Permitting
On March 8, 2011, Highland received a permit from the United States Army Corps of Engineers to begin operating in West Virginia. The mine is expected to produce about one million tons of coal per year over six years. Highland first applied for the Corps permit in August 2007. It received a surface mining permit from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection in 2008.

Citizen Opposition
The same day the Army Corps issued the permit, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to block the permit. The citizen groups also asked for a temporary restraining order, to block any activity on the site until a federal judge has time to review the issue more carefully. According to the suit: "The Corps’ issuance of the permit has created an immediate emergency with near certain risk of irreparable harm to Plaintiffs and the environment. Permittee Highland Mining Company is in the process of permanently burying more than two miles of Appalachian headwater streams. Such damage is irreversible and the damage is increasing by the hour."

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had previously objected to the Corps’ plan to issue this permit, arguing in a March 2009 letter that: "EPA has expressed its significant concern regarding the impact to the human environment through a lack of avoidance and minimization efforts undertaken for this project, the cumulative impacts on the watershed, forest and habitat destruction and fragmentation within a globally significant and biologically diverse forest system, and the impairment of downstream water quality." At the time, the operation proposed to bury 13,174 linear feet of stream channel beneath one valley fill and associated sediment control structures. The mine was proposed for Reylas Fork of Bandmill Hollow, a tributary of Dingess Run, which flows into the Guyandotte River.

The details of the Corps approval are unknown, as the permitting documents “are still being finalized." Citizen groups are concerned that the Corps’ final permit may not have included the sorts of improvements EPA had recommended two years ago. The lawsuit also alleges the Corps wrongly did not perform an Environmental Impact Statement on the permit, did not give the public notice and a chance to comment on significant changes in the permit, and that the permit, as issued, would allow the company to violate water quality standards and guidelines.

Permit suspended
On April 19, 2011, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers suspended a permit for the mine. Lawyers for the Corps filed a motion with U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers, seeking a “voluntary remand” of the permit, to conduct a further review of it. The Corps said they could reinstate, modify or revoke the permit after that review. Environmental groups had filed suit to challenge this permit, and Chambers issued a temporary restraining order. A more detailed preliminary injunction had been scheduled to start on May 10, 2011.

Mine Data

 * MSHA ID:
 * Operator:	Highland Mining
 * Controller:	Massey Energy
 * Union:
 * County:	Logan
 * State:	WV
 * Latitude:
 * Longitude:
 * Production (short tons): 1 million tons annually (projected)
 * Coal Type:
 * Mining Method:	Surface
 * Mine Status:	Active
 * Average No. of Employees:	 103 (projected)

Related SourceWatch articles
To see a listing of coal mines in a particular state, click on the map:
 * West Virginia and coal
 * U.S. coal politics
 * Coal and jobs in the United States
 * Coal phase-out
 * Headquarters of U.S. coal mining companies
 * Global list of coal mining companies and agencies
 * Proposed coal mines
 * Existing U.S. Coal Plants
 * Coal

